The Almond Festival this year aimed to bring attention back to the Capay Valley after having to skip the annual event last year due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small businesses in Esparto, Guinda, Rumsey, Capay and Brooks were eager to welcome thousands of people after two long years to celebrate the Almond blossom by doing what small communities do best; making people feel at home and like a part of the family.

That's what Laura Gordon, who spearheaded the organization of the event, wanted to accomplish when she started planning out the festival months ago.

"It's opening doors for other people to be able to come up and experience the valley, not just the Almond Festival, but the food and the gratitude that people are willing to open up," Gordon emphasized.

Gordon said the weekend-long festival went really well considering the cancellation of the Saturday Almond Blossom Parade, which was meant to see a return after decades of not being done.

"The parade got canceled… and we were trying to figure out how to bring it together because the parade was our base," Gordon explained regarding this past Saturday's festivities.

She decided to bring in nonprofit vendors to Esparto Community Park — where the parade was meant to end — in an attempt to connect the community with valuable programs.

"There are programs out there that people don't know about and it's been so long that people forget," she added.

Reaching out to county organizations and nonprofits like the Yolo County Library, Thriving Pink and the Girl Scouts was her attempt to "reconnect the community to programs that they thought were gone, or maybe not deserving to them."

Woodland-based band Little Hud, a tribute to classic rock, performed during the festival and an Almond bake-off judged by local community members and Almond Queen contestants added to festivities Saturday.

"People are just excited and wanting to relearn what it's like to be out in public and interact with people," Gordon said. "We were shut down for a little bit but we're ready to go to work."

The Almond Festival festivities this past Sunday shifted the focus more on surrounding towns Rumsey, Guinda, Capay and Brooks with restaurants and businesses offering special deals to get people from out of town to visit.

"We had people just all over the place," Gordon highlighted. "For me putting it together, it turned out perfectly."

Gordon estimated that at least 5,000 people from out of town visited the valley Sunday but believes the number could be much larger.

Edgar and Ali Lunar are both from Sacramento and chose to attend the Saturday event at Esparto Community Park after Ali heard about it from a co-worker who lives in Esparto.

"We decided to come out and see what the Almond Festival was all about and get involved in the community," Ali explained.

She noted that events like these are important because they bring people from all over to support local businesses in the communities and to learn more about the often unseen towns.

"It's totally different when you get to see the town because you can get to know what else is here," she said.

Edgar added that the festival sounded like a fun weekend event to get out of the city and offered an opportunity to explore a small town he's never been to before.

"Going to surrounding areas is always a good thing," he highlighted. "Everyone's so different outside of Sacramento, so why not enjoy the little communities outside of it? The Almond Festival was the perfect place to do that."

One of the most defining aspects of the Almond Festival is the crowning of the Almond Queen — a tradition that goes back to the beginning of the Almond Festival over 100 years ago. Karla Guijarro, a high school senior and aspiring animator, was crowned queen this year.

Guijarro said she grew up coming to the festival every year and has come to be more appreciative of it ever since her father opened KGBeez, a small Esparto-based beekeeping business that provides pollination services and sells local honey and wax.

"The Almond Festival is what got us most of our clients," Guijarro emphasized. "There are still people contacting us from the last Almond Festival asking for honey."

She said her dad uses the Almond Festival to network with people who might be interested in working with them.

"A lot of people from all over the place come over for the festival… so that's what I really like about the festival happening again this year," Guijarro added.

Bianca Elizabeth Kruup was an Almond Queen contestant this year. Although she didn't win, she got to volunteer to take photos of the event and participated as a judge in the bake-off.

Kruup is a foreign exchange student from Estonia attending Esparto High School. She said she is grateful to have spent her time on exchange in Esparto becoming a part of its tight-knit community.

"People are coming together and having so much fun and I feel like it's enriching my exchange experience," she emphasized.

While the Almond Festival was only for the weekend, Kruup noted that it's important for the Capay Valley because of the attention it brings.

"The Almond Festival brings recognition to us and brings something that is very central to this area," she began. "People are starting to notice Esparto more… seeing that it's an important town and that it's not just a farm town."

Esparto High School had students from multiple programs serving food and selling items to festival attendees in an attempt to expose students to job-like environments they will soon be entering.

The high school's Culinary Arts Club, for instance, had its students in a food truck cooking teriyaki chicken rice bowls for people challenging them to work in a fast-paced environment.

Teresa Warde runs the club and said "it's taken four long years to get to the point where we can actually have the kids in the trailer today."

The club's food truck was made possible through a Specialized Secondary Programs (SSP) grant from California that also helped other programs in the school including the creation of a new culinary facility, digital media center and a welding program for students.

"It's all career technical based education so the kids are job-ready as soon as they graduate from high school," Warde began. "Having kids job-ready is one of the metrics that's on the dashboard data for a school that judges whether or not the schools are doing a good job and Esparto High School actually tops in the county in terms of kids that are job-ready as soon as they graduate."

Warde explained that students in her Culinary Arts Club cater events, get to dual enroll in college cooking classes including an intro to catering course.

"It's a huge deal and… it's free college that they don't have to pay for," Warde emphasized.

The Almond Festival is also a huge deal for the local restaurants and businesses that benefit from the increased traffic into the region.

Stephen Gordon owns Lucy's Cafe & Farm Pantry located at 16876 Yolo Ave. in Esparto. He opened his business last year during the pandemic and hasn't had a chance to see the volume of customers the Almond Festival brings to town until now.

"Esparto often gets forgotten about so it's a great way to let people know that we're here and we're not going anywhere," he emphasized. "Our town is small but mighty and ready and open for business."

He hopes the festival will help remind people or let those who've never visited know that the local businesses that have helped make these communities great are still around and selling the locally grown products they're known for.

"We take a lot of pride in growing our own food and being able to share that with our friends, especially the people that come to the valley," he added.